


The Case

by Kaillingme (Setty94)



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Dark, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Lawyers, M/M, Murder, Religious Conflict, Religious Fanaticism, Violence, kaibaek is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 16:10:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14572674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setty94/pseuds/Kaillingme
Summary: Jongin contemplates taking on the case of the infamous Do Kyungsoo.





	The Case

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This depiction of Kyungsoo is in no way related to the actual person, nor is it reflective of my personal feelings towards him. I love Kyungsoo as most of you know from my other fics, but I wanted to write something darker back in 2015 and I sat on this fic for a long time because I wasn't sure if I could release it without getting backlash. Now, that said, you have been warned that you may not like how I portrayed Kyungsoo here. 

 

Junmyeon dropped a stack of manila folders on Jongin’s desk and cleared his throat. “Here,” he said, “This is _your_ case now.” He turned to walk away before Jongin could even respond.

Jongin stared after him for a few seconds and then opened the folder. He glanced at the client’s name. Do Kyungsoo. He was wanted for the murder of a family of five and was currently in custody with bail set in the millions. As he scanned the first few pages, something tickled the back of his mind. It sounded awfully familiar and it wasn’t until he got to the page about Kyungsoo’s medical history that everything clicked together.

Kyungsoo was the man who claimed to be doing God’s Will and that the family had to die in order for him to show his true faith. Jongin remembered hearing about the event in the news a few months ago. He continued reading through his records and tapped his pen on his desk. Kyungsoo had a history of psychiatric admittances in his childhood, but after the age of fifteen, his record was clean. He seemed to almost drop off the grid around that age and his next event on record was the murder of the family.

Jongin flipped the folder close and walked to his boss’s office. He passed by a few coworkers and smiled politely at them, but did not make small talk. They were nice people of course, but in this law firm, everyone was out for themselves. Often, cases were lobbied for, so he was not quite sure why Junmyeon had given him this case when there was a clear motive and his client was obviously guilty.

The evidence collected by the police – hair samples, DNA underneath the fingernails of the family as well as some blood from Do Kyungsoo himself – pointed towards him being guilty. Not to mention the fact that when they came to arrest him, he did not struggle and welcomed the officers into his house. He had simply claimed that he was doing his godly duties and nothing more.

Jongin knocked once and then entered. “Why?” he said, shutting the door with his foot.

Junmyeon feigned innocence. “Why what?” He clacked away at his keyboard and then grabbed a few papers and began scanning them over. He bit his lip and then looked up at Jongin. He was not a tall man, nor much older than Jongin himself. His silver-gray hair was styled back with a good amount of pomade, leaving it shiny and lustrous.

“Why are you giving me this case?” Jongin looked around the room. The walls were bare except for two generic paintings of a sail boat. His desk was disorganized with paper stacks overflowing into one another and there were a few crates on the floor with random Knick-Knacks teetering dangerously. Junmyeon had moved to this office after being promoted months ago and it seemed that with the amount of work he did, he still did not have time to unpack his belongings. That or he was simply a messy man. Jongin supposed it was the latter.

“No one else wanted it. So it’s yours,” he sighed. Junmyeon gathered the papers in his hand and tapped them on the desk a few times before shoving them in a folder and tossing it on the pile to his right. For someone so prestigious, he seemed to be a firm believer of organized chaos.

“What if I don’t want it?” Jongin said. It wasn’t like he did not want to obtain the fame – or infamy – that would accompany the case, he just had this uneasy feeling in his gut about the whole thing. It tickled his sense of morality and the thought of defending a man who could commit such heinous crimes was sickening.

Junmyeon raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, “I’m sorry, what was that?”

Jongin pursed his lips. “Never mind,” he muttered. He left the office grumbling to himself. The case was entirely too straightforward for him and quite frankly, he felt insulted by the fact that Junmyeon had forced it upon him. He knew what he would have to say to get Do Kyungsoo a lower sentence: claim mental instability, get him a psychiatric exam and have him deemed psychologically unfit and then he would be housed in a criminal psych ward, locked away for the rest of his miserable days.

Yet, Jongin did not want that. The more he thought about Do Kyungsoo, the more his anxiety rose. There was a sharp pain in his shoulders – it was where he held his tension – and his lips fell into a thin line. He clenched his jaw as he opened the file again. Maybe he could palm it off to Sehun, he was the youngest at the firm and the most eager for bigger cases. That way it would be a team effort and less of the scrutiny would be put on him.

The words swam before Jongin's eyes and all he could think about was the fact that Do Kyungsoo was a wretched man. He deserved to be treated as such and the moral compass in Jongin wanted that to be so. But, life as a defense attorney had a way of making Jongin toe the line of good and evil nearly every case.

If Jongin took this case it would make things easier at home. He and Baekhyun were still adjusting to the adoption of their daughter, Jae-eun, Baekhyun having taken time off from the hospital to watch over her while they sorted out a nanny that they could afford. Winning this case could let Baekhyun stop working altogether and be a stay-at-home dad (something he joked about with Jongin back when they first started dating all those years ago). That and they had been talking about trading in their sedan for a more practical mini-van, and after being contacted by the adoption agency last week for another prospective child, Jongin really needed to secure something more high paying.

With the money from the case, they could move out of their modest two-bedroom apartment and into a bigger family home – complete with a front yard, a picket fence, and maybe a dog or two. That was the dream right? Money was supposed to be money, but Jongin would know where it came from and it made him question his whole career. If it were up to him, he would lock up Do Kyungsoo for five life sentences, one for each victim, and then remove the possibility of parole. He wanted to see him burn for what he did. Someone that despicable could not go on living as a free man.

Three children died at his hands. _Three children under the age of ten._ Jongin could not even fathom what could bring someone to do that. Jongin didn’t care what kind of delusions the man claimed. Doing his ‘godly duties’ or whatever it was he claimed. Ho was it that religion always attracted these types of people. If Jongin was a God-fearing man, he would have disputed that Do Kyungsoo was even a child of God, but Jongin wasn’t so all he could do was question how such an all-powerful being could let such atrocities happen.

A muffled buzz brought Jongin out of his thoughts and he fished his phone out of his blazer. He stared at the contact ID and shook his head. “Kim Jongin speaking,” he said.

“Hi, this is Officer Smith, your client is ready for a meeting.”

Jongin sighed, grumbling about how Junmyeon had already passed his information off to the police department and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Be right there,” Jongin said and shoved the file into his briefcase. He hung up the phone and rushed out of his office, taking the time to flash a glare at Junmyeon’s door as he left.

 

The police department was strangely quiet when Jongin arrived. The usual hustle and bustle was replaced by curious and angry glances from officers and perpetrators alike. Jongin shrugged. It wasn’t something he wasn’t used to. Being a lawyer earned him a few common responses ranging from the jokes about lawyer being the devil themselves to being good for nothing. Jongin had heard it all, so he simply held his head high.

However, every time Jongin met someone’s gaze they looked away as if the sight of him had burned their retinas. Jongin pursed his lips as he hurried to the holding room. He wasn’t given a choice in defending this man, and now he was going to look him in the face and pretend that it didn’t bother him. Still, Jongin’s tie felt a tad too tight and his undershirt had begun itching around the cuffs. He tugged on them and gave a nod to the officer that ushered him down a hallway.

The holding room was nothing remarkable. It was a small, overly bright room with a single metal table bolted to the floor. On the surface was a ring with chains leading from it to the wrists of his client. The walls were bare cinderblock and the floor was cracked cement with stains here and there. A worker was sweeping a pile of debris and dust out the door and when he was done, he hurriedly left the room with a glance thrown over his shoulder.

Jongin sighed and walked over to the table. He could hear the chains move as Do Kyungsoo shifted in his chair, but Jongin wasn’t ready to look at him. Instead he glanced around the room for the camera in the east side of the room. He nodded at the camera and then swallowed. The air in the room was stuffy and uncomfortably warm due to the lights. Jongin placed his briefcase on the table and shrugged off his blazer, draping it over the chair before he sat down. He unbuttoned his cufflinks and shoved his sleeves up a bit.

Usually when he came to meet his clients, they spoke up, but Do Kyungsoo had been perfectly silent the whole time. Jongin glanced to the one-way window and then opened his briefcase, removing the file. Once he’d done that, he shut his briefcase and set it on the ground by his feet. Taking a deep breath he finally glanced up at Do Kyungsoo and felt goose pimples rise on his skin, despite the heat of the room.

Do Kyungsoo was not an unattractive man. Of course he wasn’t. Not all murderer’s had to be grotesque monsters, but it certainly made the job easier when they were. But, the thing about Do Kyungsoo was how unassuming he looked. He had large rounded eyes that seemed to stare right through Jongin, full lips that on anyone else, Jongin would’ve found quite nice, but knowing Do Kyungsoo’s history, they only made Jongin sweat. His black hair was still pretty neatly kept and he looked almost small sitting in the orange jumper that was clearly two sizes too big.

Jongin said nothing as they stared each other down. This was a power play and Jongin needed to stand his ground if he wanted to come out of this room not hating himself. He may not have wanted to defend Do Kyungsoo, but if he was going to have to spend a certain amount of time with him, he at the very least did not want to be disrespected.

Do Kyungsoo propped himself up on his elbows, lacing his fingers together and cocking his head to the side. A small, but unhinged smile crawled over his face. “Well?” His voice was deeper than Jongin had expected. It was velvety, sinewy, almost musical and it made Jongin’s bones ice over.

Jongin cleared his throat. Do Kyungsoo looked so...normal? He looked like someone he would pass in the streets and think nothing of it. He looked like the kind of man that he would see playing in the park with a golden retriever or a slew of kids on a crisp day. He looked _innocent_ and that was what unnerved Jongin so much. How could someone like him commit the crimes he did?

Do Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow, seemingly waiting for Jongin to respond. Jongin shook his head slightly. This man had brutally murdered a family of five in plain daylight. He had tied them up, tortured them, prolonging their deaths in the most painful way. He had covered himself in their blood, bathing in it before he called the police on himself. It was surreal to be sitting in front of him like this. Jongin really felt too green for this type of case.

Clearing his throat again, Jongin flipped open the file and glanced at it once more before speaking. “You were admitted to several mental hospitals during your adolescence.”

Do Kyungsoo’s face split in two as he grinned. It wasn’t the smile that one would expect and it deeply unnerved Jongn even more. “My parents caught me killing neighborhood pets a few times,” he said with a shrug.

Jongin nodded and scribbled in the margin of the file. He shook his head to himself as he wrote down, ‘Claim insanity’. He shut the file and clasped his hands in front of himself. “Alright, I’ll cut to the chase. The evidence is stacked against you – being on the scene, covered in the victim's blood, calling the police –”

“Oh I know,” Do Kyungsoo grinned again. It was like watching a computer program imitating human emotion. It didn’t meet his eyes, ever. “They had to die, you know?”

Jongin carefully kept his face neutral despite wanting to grimace. “Why is that?” He opened the folder again, skimming the file once more and looked Do Kyungsoo in the eyes. “Is it because you believe yourself a god?”

Do Kyungsoo shook his head, the same smile on his face finally meeting his eyes. “I’m not a god, I am _God’s Will_.”

Jongin sighed. “Anyone can kill another person, we just choose not to. What makes you _God’s Will_?”

“That may be true, but killing them meant i was doing my duty to God.” He licked his lips. “He told me to kill them. I – I heard him whispering to me. Every time I passed that house, seeing those heathens inside, enjoying a world they should not have been. Being gay is wrong you know? But God, God told me to do it. He told me to kill them, you see? He said it like this: ‘ _Kill them, Kyungsoo. Cleanse the earth of them.’_ I had to do it,” Do Kyungsoo said. His eyes were staring hard at Jongin, as if he believed this so resolutely. The chains jingled as he shifted in his seat. “I had to obey. It was _God_. And mama always said to do God’s Will.”

Jongin felt a spike of pure distaste fill his mouth. He was going to give this case back to Junmyeon. He could not defend Do Kyungsoo. As if being a murderer wasn’t enough, he was a homophobe and it made Jongin sick to his stomach. How could he take this case and not feel like a hypocrite? Jongin glanced over to the window and then back to Do Kyungsoo. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and balled it in his fist to keep from saying anything.

Do Kyungsoo tried to stand up but when the chains restrained him, he simply moved his hands to the edge of the table and let them hang there as he leaned forward. “They were perfect too. The perfect ones to kill for God. They went to church every Sunday. The little girls wore frilly dresses and the boys were always in slacks. Both of those fags coordinated too. So disgusting.” He grinded the chains over the metal table again. “But they weren’t worshipping God like I do. They couldn’t hear him, like me. If they did, they would’ve killed themselves for me.”

Jongin felt bile fight up his esophagus. He swallowed and looked away for a moment. He had never felt this ill about a case. “Is – Is God talking to you now?” He needed to change the topic.

“Yes, yes he’s always talking to me,” Do Kyungsoo said. His eyes were wild.

Ice ran down Jongin’s spine. “What is he saying?”

“Abraham.” He replied. “I’m faithful just like Abraham. I didn’t question God. I just did what I was told.” The chair creaked under his weight as he leaned over the table as far as he could. “He needs someone like me. Someone who will follow him without question. He….oh?” Do Kyungsoo tilted his head. “Mister, do you believe in God?”

Jongin shied back. Something was definitely off right now. He cleared his throat and shook his head. “I don’t even know if there is a god.”

“He’s real, mister, he’s real. He’s telling me something real good right now,” Do Kyungsoo nodded. “Real, real good.” His vernacular had changed – becoming more informal as the minutes went by. “It’s folks like you that he wants me to take care of. If I didn’t have these chains I’d do it, but God says no, not right now. But I’ll make you believe, yes I will.”

Jongin furrowed his brows. This was not what he signed up for. Perhaps he would make sure this man got help. He clearly needed it. Maybe the rest of his life under psychological care would help him. Jongin wasn’t sure but now all he felt was pity. “Why would God tell you to kill? Isn’t murder against God?”

Do Kyungsoo sucked in a huge gulp of air. “God flooded the Earth to get rid of the sinners. Now he’s using me,” he said. “You’re unpure, he told me so, but I can’t cleanse you yet, no not yet.” He started shaking his head back and forth repeating _‘Not yet, no, not yet’_ over and over.

Jongin glanced to the window and nodded his head. He heard the handle rattle as the officer opened it and frowned. He was going to return to the firm, have a talk with Junmyeon and turn down the case. This was not for him. Not in the slightest.

The officers slapped another pair of shackles on Do Kyungsoo before unchaining him from the table. He wrestled against them, repeating the same phrase over and over while trying to maintain eye contact with Jongin. Spittle was frothing from the corner of his mouth as he jumped and fought against the officers.

“Someone else will take my place!” He screamed and then stopped fighting the officers.

Jongin jerked in surprise and quickly packed up his things. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as the fear and discomfort coursed through him. That man needed help, but Jongin wasn’t sure if anything could even help him now. He watched as Do Kyungsoo was dragged out of the room and then heaved a huge sigh.

“He’s a right looney, huh?” One of the guards said.

Jongin nodded. “He’s something alright.” He caught Do Kyungsoo’s gaze as he passed by the window and shuddered. “He needs help, serious help.”

 

Back at his office, Jongin glanced up when Junmyeon stopped by his desk. He placed both hands on the edge and leaned in. “You’re taking the case right?”

Jongin shook his head and handed him the file. “Not unless I’m persecuting him myself. I want nothing to do with the man.”

Junmyeon stared at him before grabbing the file. “That bad?”

Jongin raked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’ve got a family to worry about, can’t have myself around him and the money isn’t worth it.”

Junmyeon pursed his lips. “I’ll pass it off to the M branch then.” He started walking away and then paused. “For future reference, if I give you a case, you take it.”

Jongin watched him leave and then turned to his computer screen. Maybe Junmyeon had a point. He typed in the case file number and searched for the family that was persecuting DO Kyungsoo. After finding them, he opened an new email and began drafting. He knew it was a long shot asking the state office to let him defend the family, but something in him knew he would feel better if he knew that man was going to be kept out of society.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! If you've read this far then thank you! Again, as I said in my disclaimer this is a work of fiction and does not represent the actual person nor my feelings towards Kyungsoo. I know this fic is a bit out there as far as that goes, so hopefully, you won't be too hard on me~ As always, if you liked it please drop a comment or kudos! 
> 
> Until next time~


End file.
